Tubing is processed for numerous purposes, including packaging various consumer items like paper products and consumable foodstuffs. Typically, paper tube processing machinery is engaged for winding, cutting and labelling paper tubes used for packaging.
Machinery known for processing tubing, such as paper tubes, typically is engaged to perform a series of tasks on a tube concurrently. Some known machines, for example the Guschky Tonnesmann Parallel Labelling and Cut-Off Machine as illustrated in FIG. 1, incorporate a "turret" apparatus A, which completes numerous processes simultaneously. A paper tube B is loaded onto a first spindle C, labelling is performed on a second spindle D, a tube is trim cut on a third spindle E by means of a plurality of circular knives F, and the cut, labelled tubes G are discharged from a spindle at a fourth station. Thus, low cost paper tube packaging is substantially automatically generated via a single machine which performs numerous processes substantially simultaneously. However, such turret machinery typically operates at 10-30 cycles per minute, with the slowest operation being determinative of the overall operating speed. The spindles generally are rotating before any spindle end support is engaged, which creates difficulties with misalignment when rotating warped or unbalanced spindles contact a spindle end support. Spindle speeds must be limited to preclude warped and/or unbalance spindles from "whipping" and jamming the machine Further, turret type machines are typically machinery intensive and disadvantageously require a stock of spindles be retained for potentially replacing three or four spindles at a time. Thus, single spindle, single process machinery has been developed to reduce machinery requirements and perform a single operation on a tube, so as to permit batch processing of tubes without limiting processing speeds by an operation which must be performed at slower speeds than other operations.
An exemplary single mandrel, or spindle, tube cutter is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,902,387 to Reynolds. The Reynolds tube cutting apparatus comprises a stationary, rotatably mounted single mandrel and a movable mandrel loading platform which is reciprocated by a driving cylinder mounted to a supporting frame. The movable platform reciprocates back and forth on a plurality of rods mounted to the support frame and has a bar attached thereto with a rotatable cup at an end thereof to facilitate loading of tube on the stationary mandrel. The platform/bar/cup assembly is actuated by the cylinder in a first direction into a tube receiving portion of a tube support tray. A tube loaded into the tube support tray is engaged by the bar/cup and actuated with the platform in the first direction, displacing the tube from the tube support tray and pushing the tube onto the stationary, rotatable single mandrel for cutting. The tube is cut and the platform actuated in a second direction to retract the bar/cup and a mandrel support, which pushes the cut tubes from the stationary mandrel onto a discharge chute. When the platform is fully retracted the platform/bar/cup assembly is ready to load the next tube onto the stationary mandrel for cutting.
Disadvantageously, the Reynolds tube cutting apparatus requires significant displacement of the tube being processed, which introduces opportunities for mis-feeding and jamming malfunctions of the machine resulting in waste and downtime. Like turret-type machines the single spindle of the Reynolds-type machine is also rotating prior to engagement of any spindle end support, limiting spindle rotation speeds and presenting the opportunity for mis-feeding and jamming caused by warped or unbalanced spindles. Further, the platform/bar/cup loader which actuates tubes onto the stationary rotatable mandrel, must have sufficient space between the end of the stationary mandrel and the end of the tube support tray so that the cut tubes being stripped from the mandrel as the loader retracts can fall unimpeded into the discharge chute. Such sufficient space dds to the overall stroke length the loader must travel to displace and load a tube on the stationary mandrel. Such additional travel is translated into undesirable additional time required to process tubes on the apparatus.
Additionally, the Reynolds tube cutting apparatus requires that the platform/bar/cup loader which actuates tubes onto the stationary rotatable mandrel must always be actuated a full stroke, including the additional travel discussed hereinbefore, to displace and load tubes onto the mandrel. The full stroke of the loader, through the tube support tray to the rotating mandrel until the cup supports the rotating mandrel, is required regardless of the length of the tube that is being cut. Similarly, the loader must be fully retracted a full stroke in order to discharge the cut tube and load and cut a subsequent tube. Such full stroke travel may be unnecessary and undesirable in applications where short tube lengths are to be processed. Full stroke travel also limits the flexibility of the apparatus precluding progressive cuts of varying lengths involving limited travel of the tube being processed.
As discussed, both the turret-type and single spindle Reynolds-type machines are significantly limited in terms of spindle rotational speed due to commencement of spindle rotation prior to spindle end support. Both machine types are undesirably susceptible to mis-alignment and jamming problems at higher speeds due to undesirably large tube or workpiece displacement. Waste separation or control has been a problem with both machine types because of the significant lateral displacement of the tube, i.e. waste cut tube ends must be hand picked from or packaged with the cut tube product. Either a costly optional device must be purchased or waste control is not dealt with at all. In addition, both types of machines known in the prior art require the processing means or knives to be retracted and actuated considerably, either because of fixed mechanical camming of the knives or to provide clearance for the tube being displaced onto and off of the rotating spindle. Such exaggerated travel of the processing means or knives translates into undesirably increased processing time.